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Tracking Cuckoos to Africa... and back again

We’ve lost over half the number of Cuckoos in the UK over the last 20 years.

Since 2011 we’ve been satellite-tracking Cuckoos to find out why. We’ve learned lots of vital information which could help us to understand our Cuckoos - such as how the different routes taken are linked to declines, and some of the pressures they face whilst on migration.

But there is still more to discover. We now need to look more closely at how dependent they are on, and how much their migration is linked, to the drought-busting rains of the weather frontal system known as the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) as they move out of the Congo rainforest and begin to head back to the UK via West Africa.

Latest News

Victor's newest signals on 14 February show he's moved a further 400km (245 miles) northwards and is now in the west of the Central African Republic.

Selborne in Guinea- 15 Feb 2018

Selborne has only travelled a short distance since the last blog but, by flying 75km (50 miles) north-east, he is now over the country border and into Guinea. He's already covered an incredible journey of approximately 5760km (3,500 miles) from his wintering location in Angola. Go Selborne!

Larry moves north within Congo- 15 Feb 2018

Larry has moved a further 280km (175 miles) northwards within Congo. He is now in the Odzala-Kokoua National Park, an area that Victor has just left. This is an area that Larry didn't use on the first migration we followed but discovered when heading south in October 2016, and again made use of for a few weeks in February 2017 on his northward migration, before heading into Cameroon.